Poll: How Many Emails Are In Your Inbox? «

Last week, I asked what tasks you tackle first thing in the morning. After a week of votes, checking email is in the lead with 40%. Prioritizing your task list and responding to messages are in second and third places, respectively.

If you haven’t voted yet, you can answer how you start you day here.

The fact that the majority of small business owners who weighed in on the poll check email first thing in the morning doesn’t surprise me in the least. Email is quick; email gives us a paper trail; and email can be managed any time of day. So, it’s not a surprise that busy small business owners put so much importance on email.

But email can also be unproductive, stressful and…well, annoying. If you fall behind or aren’t aggressive with your email clean-up, you may lose sight of important messages, or waste time having to wade through the junk.

There are many different ways to use email, other than communicating. You can use your inbox as a task list, as a reminder system, or even as a catchall for everything you think is important. And the number of messages in your inbox can tell a lot about how you use email as a small business tool.

So, that leads me to my poll for today. Right now, how many email messages do you have sitting in your inbox? Answer below.